Hangul is one of the easiest character form to learn, in fact people proclaim it can be learnt in under an hour with the help of easy mnemonics, let’s see how.
I still have to cover more vowels and add tips for pronounciation which I’ll add soon.™
Consonants
Consonant
Pron.
Mnemonic
Aspirated
Pron.
Mnemonic
ㅂ
b
bucket
ㅍ
p
part II/pi
ㄷ
d
door
ㅌ
t
two doors
ㄱ
g
gun
ㅋ
k
kill
ㅈ
j
(jug)
ㅊ
ch
church
Consonant
Pron.
Mnemonic
ㅎ
h
hat
ㄹ
r/l
rattlesnake
ㅁ
m
mouth
ㄴ
n
nose
ㅅ
s
standing
ㅇ
- / ng(at end)
zero = no
Look at the last consonant, it’s a placeholder character which has no sound by itself but if it ends a particular syllable, it is pronounced as ng.
Vowels
I always got confused between the vowels even with various mnemonics until I came across this guide by 90 day korean which really clarified with the help of their acronym “Old iPod, new iPad”
By lining up the corresponding characters with the sounds, we get the vowels. By adding a seond line to these characters one can create the following sounds preceeded by y-.
Vowel
Pron.
Mnemonic
Modified
Pron.
ㅗ
oh
old
ㅛ
yoh
ㅓ
eo/uh
iPod
ㅕ
yeo/yuh
ㅜ
ooh
new
ㅠ
yooh
ㅏ
a/ah
iPad
ㅑ
yah
Vowel
Pron.
Mnemonic
ㅣ
ee
tree
ㅡ
oo
brook
Strong Consonants
Consonant
Pron.
ㄸ
dd
ㅉ
jj
ㄲ
gg
ㅃ
bb
ㅆ
ss
Examples: 떡볶이 is tteokbokki and 빨간색 is pplagansaek (red).
